The Paradoxical Commandments

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs. Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway.
- Kent M. Kieth

I also found this version, which, personally, I liked better:

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Look for the best in them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Work hard and try to succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, others may be jealous; Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see at the end it is between you and God; It never was between you and them anyway.
.

Comments

TorAa said…
I do agree with you. No doubt
I like the 2nd one too. It really is between God and ourselves as well as ourselves and ourselves!
Hope you're having a great summer with your kids, Richard. Going on holidays somewhere? Been rainiest summer ever here.
x said…
i like the 2nd 1 better, too. it sounds more meaningful and more human than the kind of person the 1st 1 is referring to which is probably super holy with superhuman powers.

thanks for sharing, richard! i copied it. hehe.
CG said…
And the saddest truth of them all is that all in this post is true, making people very ungrateful breed indeed. I wonder how does god feel about it?
tin-tin said…
isn't the second one from mother teresa? :)
tin-tin said…
i would just like to tell you that you've been tagged. just check out my blog (post is 20 questions) :)
Anonymous said…
hi, richard! how's everything going? :)
Ancilla said…
Hi Richard...
This commandments make me smile, especially after what I felt when I post in my blog.. HeHeHe..

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